


It's What You Deserve

by Pikelet184



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Adoption, Advertising, Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Angst and Feels, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bullying, Explicit Language, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Foster Care, Happy Ending, High School, Misunderstandings, Modern AU, Nerd Ben, Post-High School, Revenge, School Reunion, Smut, high school parties, new girl rey, rey just wants to fit in, time jumps
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-14
Updated: 2019-11-13
Packaged: 2021-01-30 09:09:46
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21425731
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pikelet184/pseuds/Pikelet184
Summary: “So,” Amilyn resumes, her voice treading carefully. “I know you said you weren’t coming to the reunion. But if you’ve changed your mind…”“No! Definitely not.” Rey blurts out quickly, knowing exactly where the conversation is heading. “I’m still not interested. And Ben Solo going has only permanently cemented my stance on the matter.”“Rey,” Amilyn says gently. “If he has the guts to show his face after everything that happened, surely you can.”“I can’t,” she whispers painfully. “I can’t…face him. Even after all these years I still feel terrible…about what I did to him.”Rey has only one regret in her life and that has something to do with the quiet boy from high school. But facing the past is not always easy and it's certainly not something she has the time for now. Especially with troubles at work and a new advertising firm called Kylo Ren Enterprises swooping in and stealing her client.
Relationships: Ben - Relationship, Kylo Ren/Rey, Rey & Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 15
Kudos: 110





	It's What You Deserve

**Author's Note:**

> My new story! Yay! Thank you for all your support. This fandom is awesome.
> 
> Thank you to @sponsormusings for being such a great beta. I'd be lost without you.

Rey tosses and turns in her king-size bed for what seems like the hundredth time. The simple act of falling asleep has never evaded her before, but tonight her brain is like a live wire buzzing around on its own high-frequency channel.

Sighing in frustration, Rey lifts her head and sneaks a peek at the cell phone sitting on her bedside table. The time on her home screen flashes bright and taunts back - 1.12 am. At this point, if she falls asleep now, she might be lucky enough to get five hours of sleep before she has to get up and go to work.

Feeling annoyed at herself that she can’t switch off her brain, she kicks away her blankets in a huff.

In the morning her team is making a big presentation with a potential affluent new client, Mr Ackbar, who could become the firm’s biggest advertising deal in the company’s history - Rey is the keynote speaker. She’s spent months researching the history of _Ackbar_ _Crystals_, with many late nights designing multiple prints and social networking mock-ups that she believes will speak to a wide range of social demographics.

Rey’s never been good at public speaking and she’s terrified she’ll mess up and let the company down, but it’s not in her nature to give up. She may not feel confident about what she’s about to walk into in a few hours, but she’s prepared, knows she’s ready and has a smart team behind her.

It was a few months ago when she first heard through the grapevine that _Ackbar Crystals_ weren’t happy with their current advertisers and were looking for a change. She’d immediately confided in her friend and team leader Poe Dameron, who even on his deathbed would still ooze the skills and charisma he was born with in order to win over a client. But, surprisingly, he’d refused to inform the firm’s directors, Snoke and Palpatine about the golden opportunity.

_“You found out about this, you should be the one to pitch it to them,” he’d told her as he’d pulled her aside, away from their colleagues’ gossipy ears. “Trust me, they’ll be gleeful at the prospect. And if the team gets the go-ahead, you’ll be running it. I know you can do it, Rey, trust me. You have no idea the effect you can have on people.”_

Rey punches her pillow with a groan as she remembers Poe’s reassuring words. Right now, they’re not helping to alleviate her worries. In fact, she wishes today was over with already because then she would know either way where she stands and her body would no longer feel like a stretched rubber band about to snap.

_This is ridiculous. _

Rey rolls onto her back _again _and forces herself to relax by taking slow, deep cleansing breaths. _Maybe I should try some of those meditation techniques I learnt back in high school. _Closing her eyes, she tries to imagine somewhere peaceful; somewhere that work and stressful million-dollar business meetings don’t exist.

It doesn’t take long for a familiar image to appear in her mind.

An island.

_Her _island.

She hasn’t thought about the place in a long time. It first appeared to her as a small child when she was growing up in the unpredictable foster care system. And over the years the island became a safe haven for her mind to travel to whenever she felt alone or scared. She doesn’t know if it exists in real life, but in her imagination it’s always the same. The island is situated in the middle of the ocean with a jagged cliff face. Large waves constantly break and crash against the rocks below, but there’s never anything for her to fear as she’s always standing nice and safe on top watching the beautiful chaos around her.

If she concentrates hard enough, she swears she can feel the warmth of the sun’s rays and the light spray of the ocean’s waves tickling her skin. She also imagines the island’s native Porgs singing, but as their sweet tunes get louder, their sounds suddenly turn hectic and begin to mimic the familiar conversations she’s had with her colleagues over the last week.

_“We will be most displeased Miss Kanta if you lose this deal for us…. very disappointed indeed. So don’t let our faith in you go to waste,” _Rey’s boss, Richard Snoke, hissed at her as she was leaving for the day.

_“I’ve already put a down payment on a new BMW, so make sure you show Mr Ackbar a little skin tomorrow Rey Rey,” _Bobby Fett, a member of her team, told her with a wink as she was getting off the elevator.

_“Peanut, you’ll be fine. We have complete faith in you. And just remember if you have any trouble tomorrow, just picture Mr Ackbar in his underwear. That technique always works for me,”_ her friend Finn laughed, before leaving to go home with Poe for the night.

_Urgh! There’s no escaping it. _

Rey opens her eyes and her attention is immediately pulled towards the open window across from her. She watches the simple outdated floral curtains her adoptive mother Maz made for her swing softly in the night-time breeze. It’s then that it occurs to her that there is something she can do to help her fall asleep, and she’s surprised she didn’t think of it earlier.

With her lips curling into a relieved smile, Rey moves her hands down to reach the elastic band of her sleep shorts and with no hesitation lowers them, along with her underwear. Still wearing her singlet top, Rey lifts it up so it’s bunched underneath her chin, the action allowing her small breasts to be exposed and her nipples to pebble in the cool night air. What she wouldn’t give to have a warm, wet mouth sucking and teasing them right now. Rey’s not usually a slave to her physical desires, but it’s been nine _long_ months since she’s had sex and she can’t deny that there’s some days her pussy aches and longs to be stretched and filled by a big strong man with a hard cock.

Rey moves her left hand up to cup her breasts and begins alternating between massaging and tweaking her nipples, while her other hand travels lower to the familiar destination of her pussy. She sighs gratefully at the much-needed contact, using her dexterous fingers to rub small tight circles around her sensitive clit. She breathes out loudly in contentment and moves her fingers lower to dip into the wetness already seeping out of her and uses the slickness to rub back up against her clit. _Finally_, she feels her body start to relax, and sinks further into the mattress, closing her eyes in relief.

For a few minutes, she lays there contently, enjoying the friction and the tempo her fingers are creating, when out of nowhere her cell phone beeps beside her with a notification and lights up the entire room.

She groans, ignoring it, knowing it’s only one of her apps and continues her ministrations.

She feels her pussy lips start to swell and swears her clit is pulsing like a heartbeat against her fingertips.

_Almost there. _

A second later her phone beeps and lights up the room again.

And then again.

_What the hell? _Rey looks over to her phone, as it vibrates against the table indicating she’s received a new text message. She hurries her movements and throws herself over the ledge, her clit and pussy thrumming and contracting under her fingers in a blissful orgasm. 

She keeps her eyes closed, taking a deep steady breath, and allows herself to enjoy the high for a moment.

Her phone goes off again.

_What the fuck?_

Now feeling wide awake and worried someone has died, she quickly reaches over to grab some tissues to wipe herself up and picks up her phone, noticing there are a couple of text messages from her old high school friend, Amilyn Holdo.

** _Amilyn: “I’m sorry if you’re asleep, but did you see who wrote on the school reunion message board??!!!!!!!!!!”_ **

** **

** _Amilyn:“REY! Seriously! Check it out. NOW!!!”_ **

Feeling a mixture of annoyance and curiosity as Amilyn is usually so cool, calm and collected, Rey lays back down again with her phone and taps on the Facebook app, bringing up the event page for _Takodana High School 10 Year Reunion: Class 2009_

She scrolls down to the comments section and notices a new message was posted a few minutes ago. The name of the writer causes her eyes to widen in surprise.

** _Armitage Hux: I know I’m cutting it fine as RSVP’s are due in a couple of days, but I’ve been able to move some things around with work and I can make it to the reunion. _ **

Rey notices that Amilyn, who is one of the organisers of the reunion, has already responded to him in the comments section. _Geez, Amilyn do you ever sleep?_

** _Amilyn Holdo: Thats great news Armie. It will be such a fun night. Is it just urself or should I put u down with a plus 1?_ **

Rey’s eyes lower to read his response.

** _Armitage Hux: It’s just me. My wife will be staying home with our son. But can you put down that Ben Solo will be there too? He doesn’t have Facebook. _ **

Rey gasps loudly, the noise sounding more animal than human.

_WHAT?!_

It’s clear she isn’t the only one surprised at this announcement as Amilyn has commented straight away.

** _Amilyn Holdo: :) :) Ben’s coming?? WOW! That’s great. No worries @ all. Tell him we’re looking forward 2 seeing him again. _ **

Rey swallows the lump that has formed at the back of her throat and shakes her head in disbelief. _Ben? Ben Solo?! No. There’s no way he would show up to this…_

Rey continues lying quietly, staring up at her phone like she’s been caught in a daze. She re-reads Armie’s messages again trying to depict if there are any hidden meanings behind his words when her phone lights up again, surprising her with an incoming call. _Amilyn_. She suddenly feels caught off guard by the whole thing and picks it up like she’s on autopilot.

“Can you believe _he’s_ coming?” Amilyn cries out. “Oh my god, it’s unbelievable. I’m in shock! After everything that happened in high school, I was not expecting to hear from him ever again.”

“Well, technically it was Armie that said he was coming,” Rey replies, her voice still set to stunned.

“It’s nice to know he found out about it through. He was the only one I couldn’t send an invite to.”

Rey hums, but she’s not sure if she agrees with her.

“It’s also good to know,” she continues, her voice becoming softer, “That Armie and he remained friends after high school… the poor guy didn’t have many.”

Rey closes her eyes and feels a sharp vibration of a blade stabbing through her heart like it’s come from muscle memory.

“Solo has guts, I’ll give him that,” Amilyn continues, sounding impressed.

Rey can’t deny that statement and nods her head in agreement, not caring that Amilyn can’t see her. The euphoria she was experiencing earlier thanks to her orgasm has now been depleted with a violent punch and been replaced with deep-seated sadness and shame.

She hasn’t felt this way in a long time.

“So,” Amilyn resumes, her voice treading carefully. “I know you said you weren’t coming. But if you’ve changed your mind…”

“No! Definitely not.” Rey blurts out quickly, knowing exactly where the conversation is heading. “I’m still not interested. And Ben Solo going has only permanently cemented my stance on the matter.”

“Rey,” Amilyn says gently. “If he has the guts to show his face after everything that happened, surely you can.”

“I can’t,” she whispers painfully. “I can’t…face him. Even after all these years I still feel terrible…about what I did to him.”

“You mean what _we_ did to him,” Amilyn reminds her.

Rey closes her eyes. “It doesn’t matter. I didn’t do anything to stop it.”

Awkward silence drifts through the line for a few moments as Rey quickly pushes down the painful memories threatening to resurface.

“We did try to apologise to him afterwards,” Amilyn adds, reminding her. “Surely that has to count for something, right?”

Rey scoffs. “You mean_ you_ and _I _tried too. The others didn’t care.”

Amilyn sighs sadly. “I know we don’t see each other much anymore… but I had no idea you were still feeling this way about it.”

Rey sniffles and can’t help it when a lone tear escapes and runs down her cheek. She doesn’t want to admit out loud how often Ben Solo has appeared in her mind and interrupted her life over the past ten years. It certainly isn’t a healthy pastime, and she’s lost count on how many occasions she’s wallowed in misery with a bottle of wine and tried searching for him on any social media platform she could think of. After everything that happened, she needed to at least get a peek into his life to make sure he was alright. But frustratingly, she’d only been able to locate his father, Han Solo, on Facebook a few years earlier - though while his page was set to public, there had never been any photos of Ben. Han only posted restoration pictures of his car that he called the millennium falcon, with a few of the photos including Ben’s mother, Leia, always sitting in the passenger seat with a smile on her face.

But there was never anything on Ben. Even the Facebook account he had back in high school disappeared. It was like Ben Solo no longer existed.

That thought alone makes Rey’s eyes fill with tears and she lets out a shaky breath.

“Oh, Rey, I’m sorry,” Amilyn continues sadly. “If this is still affecting you so much… maybe you should come to the reunion and see him. It’s been years. I’m sure he’s okay and gotten over it.”

“Really? You want to bet money on that?”

“Well, why would he come to the reunion if he was still holding a grudge? That doesn’t make any sense,” Amilyn argues.

Rey doesn’t know how to reply. She has no idea why Ben is suddenly making his presence known after all these years. She closes her eyes and pinches the bridge of her nose. This unexpected turn of events has left her head floundering and her heart hurting.

“So, what do you say?”

There’s a few beats of silence before Rey’s voice breaks through with a hint of finality. “I’m not going to the reunion.”

“Can you at least think about it…please?”

Rey shakes her head, her mind made up. “I should go,” she says, choosing to ignore her old friend’s plea. “I’ve got a presentation in the morning and I need to get some sleep.”

“Okay,” Amilyn sighs, knowing she’s lost the battle. “Good luck with it. I’m sure you’ll knock it out of the park. You always do. Let’s catch up soon, yeah?”

Rey agrees, before ending the call and carelessly throwing her phone onto the floor. It’s funny how things in life can change so quickly. With one phone call, she no longer feels stressed about her presentation. Instead, she feels her mind has been taken hostage by something bigger. Something much more painful.

Rey closes her exhausted eyes, her brain immediately finding and bringing him to focus like a Pavlovian response. He’s a young and lanky boy with coffee brown eyes and big ears that stick out underneath his raven coloured locks. A boy who would often give her shy smiles, half his lunch if she ever forgot hers and his study notes, where she would always find amusing drawings and clever slogans written in beautiful calligraphy. Sucking in a sharp breath she quickly shoves those memories aside as she doesn’t believe she deserves to remember him in such a beautiful way. His image now becomes twisted and changes into something she knows she deserves to witness. It’s one of the last memories she has of him. His dark eyes searching hers sadly before they fill with shock and unbearable pain…

Rey lies in bed awake for the rest of the night, tears flowing freely while allowing memories of him to rise to the surface and wander around her consciousness repeatedly like a bunch of pesky poltergeists.

It is what she deserves after all.

\----------------------------------------------------

A few hours later, when the sun starts to rise between the city’s skyscrapers, Rey steps off the quiet elevator to the twenty-ninth floor, with a large double espresso in one hand and her employee identification card in the other. She scans her card at the computer panel and the double glass doors that label _Palpatine and Snoke Advertising_ open automatically for her.

If she wasn’t consumed with anxiety and worry, she would have thought it was eerily quiet being here by herself before business hours commenced. She quickly switches on the light to illuminate the entire floor, her bleary eyes exhausted as she walks past a dozen empty cubicles, and heads towards her small office tucked away at the back. It isn’t much; she doesn’t have her own private bathroom or a view of the park like some of her other colleagues, but it’s a space she can call her own.

After hours of lying in bed being tormented on a loop like she was experiencing her own personal Groundhog Day, Rey had forced herself to get out of the nightmare and do something productive. And the only way to achieve that was to go into work.

Pulling out her chair, Rey waits for her computer to boot up, taking generous sips of the warm and bitter liquid in her hand. Mr Ackbar will arrive in three hours, so she has more than enough time to go over everything again for the hundredth time. There’s no way she’s going to be caught unawares by anything or anybody, not even her devious brain that keeps trying to dump fragments of Ben Solo into every one of her thoughts.

Logging onto the company’s server with a forceful click of the mouse, Rey firmly reminds herself that her job is on the line and that she needs to get her act together and not think about anything else. As she takes another sip of her coffee and reads the latest email she received from Paige Turco, she swears she hears the elevator’s soft ding, and numerous male voices shouting at one another. Quirking a brow in curiosity, her ears now on full alert, she catches the tell-tale sign of the glass doors opening and heavy footsteps rushing in. As the noise gets closer to her office, she begins to recognise the raised voices of her bosses Snoke and Palpatine arguing, and a third male voice jumping in every now and again.

_What are they doing here this early?_

Now feeling wide awake, Rey stands up carefully and slowly makes her way over to the door just in time to hear Snoke’s voice hiss with venom, “Your team failed, Dameron.”

“But sir, we didn’t know this was going to happen.” she hears Poe splutter. “Rey only confirmed the meeting with him 24 hours ago and as far as we were aware, everything was on track.”

“That’s not good enough,” Palpatine’s slow and ragged voice joins in, cutting the atmosphere in two. “Tell the girl what happened and then I want to see you both in my office in an hour.”

Rey hears two sets of heavy footsteps dissipate in the opposite direction, the loud voices still echoing off the walls in the distance, while the last pair of feet shuffle hesitantly towards the direction of her office.

Not knowing what to do, Rey quickly rushes back to her desk and takes a seat.

A moment later Poe peeks his head around her open door, his eyes flashing with a moment of relief when he realises she’s come in early, but it quickly turns to worry. She stands up, taking in his appearance. He looks terrible, like someone has died. His face is drawn and his suit is all crumpled like he rolled out of bed and put on the first thing he could find off his bedroom floor.

“Poe, what’s – ”

“We lost the account,” he staggers, blowing out a ragged breath.

“What account?”

“Our_ biggest_ account,” he continues, his eyes staring at her in shock, like he can’t believe it.

“What? But that makes no sense. _Endor Automotives_ had their best year in over a decade! Why would they get rid of us?”

“No. Not Endor,” he tells her slowly. “We lost…Ackbar.”

“Wh-what?” She manages to stutter out and moves out from behind her desk on shaky legs. “But…we haven’t even done our presentation yet…how could we have lost it?”

Poe runs a hand through his dishevelled hair and looks around the room hopelessly. “Apparently another firm swooped in yesterday and Ackbar was so impressed that he signed a five-year deal with them right then and there.”

Rey’s eyes widen in shock. “No. That can’t be right. I spoke to Mr Ackbar himself only yesterday morning and he said we were the only firm he had an appointment with.”

“Well he was either lying or someone knew our firm was about to have a meeting with him and swooped in.”

They stare at each other in silence, each wearing horrified expressions at the realisation. Rey feels sick to her stomach. All that hard work, late nights, and cancelled plans…it was all for nothing. And the ramifications of this. On her. On Poe and the rest of the team. Rey swears she’s about to throw up right there on the plush carpet of her office and wonders morbidly if that will be the only permanent mark she’ll leave with this company…

Rey grips the side of her desk for support. “So, who got the account?”

“No one we know. We’ve never come across them before. New kids on the block who like to play dirty, if their massive scheme to poach our client is any indication. I mean, we had this in the bag,” Poe adds, his voice now rising with anger.

Rey nods in agreement. Even with all her worries and nerves, she really thought they had a strong chance of getting the account. “So, who stole it from us?”

Poe’s lips curl into disgust. “They call themselves _Kylo Ren Enterprises_.”

**Author's Note:**

> I would love to hear from. Please let me know what you think.
> 
> I can be found on tumblr @peetaspikelets or twitter @pikelet184


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